President Obama’s reelection campaign has hired a former lobbyist for the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline as a top adviser.

The campaign said that Broderick Johnson,founder and former principal of the communications firm the Collins Johnson Group, would serve as a senior adviser for the campaign. Before founding the firm this spring, he worked for the powerhouse lobbying firm, Bryan Cave LLP, where his clients included Microsoft, Comcast and TransCanada, the company planning to build the $7-billion pipeline to carry crude from Alberta’s oil sands to the Texas Gulf Coast.

Johnson’s federal lobbyist filings indicate that TransCanada paid Bryan Cave at least $240,000 late last year and early this year for Johnson to work on supporting the “submission for a presidential permit for Keystone XL Pipeline.” He lobbied members of Congress, the filings show, as well as the administration and the State Department.

An Obama campaign official said that in his new role Johnson would “serve as a national surrogate for the campaign and our representative in meetings with key leaders, communities and organizations. Broderick will be an ear to the ground for the campaign’s political and constituency operations, helping to ensure that there is constant, open communication between the campaign and our supporters around the country.”

JR: This is a tone-deaf, bone-headed move that Bill McKibben slammed on behalf of the increasingly disenfranchised 99%:

In an emailed statement, climate change activist and Keystone XL critic Bill McKibben complained: “I don’t think you could conceive a more elaborate way to disrespect not just the environmental community but also Occupy Wall Street, because this is simply a reminder of the way that corporate lobbyists dominate our politics… Forget ‘Hope and Change’ — it’s like they want their new slogan to be ‘Business as Usual.’ “

Return on investment from solar power is higher than from any other renewable energy source, thanks to large-scale technological improvements that are expected to bring down the cost of power generation to $1/W by 2020, according to a new report from SBI Energy. The payback period for a typical PV project has also come down to three to five years, from seven to 10 years.

The report predicts that the cost of solar power production will decrease by half every 10 years, reaching as low as $0.50/W by 2030. Large-scale adoption of PV technology and the emergence of low-cost production sites in China, Taiwan and other Asian markets will further reduce the cost of production in coming years.

Since 2000, cumulative PV installations have grown at a compound annual growth rate of 35%, reaching 40 GW globally in 2010, and the market is estimated to reach 400 GW by 2020. SBI Energy also estimates that the global PV inverters market, currently valued between $5.5 billion and $5.8 billion, will reach $7.5 billion in 2015.

“During 2011-2012, we expect a short-term lull in the European Union PV market, primarily due to [feed-in-tariff] rate cuts and regulations on farm land usage for ground-mount installations,” states Arun Kumar, SBI Energy analyst and author of the report. “But this will be offset by installations in the high-growth markets of North America and Asia, and China in particular.”

The new normal for gasoline prices continues to plague American consumers.

Over the last week, the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline in the U.S. stabilized, down 1.4 cents to $3.462 a gallon after jumping nearly 6 cents a gallon the previous week, according to the Energy Department’s weekly survey of service stations.

But that’s 22.6% higher than the old record for this week of the year, which was an average of $2.823 a gallon set in 2007. For the same week in 2010, the U.S. average was $2.817.

The financial burden in California is even greater. Although the state’s average for a gallon of regular gasoline fell 0.6 of a penny to $3.858, that was 22.7% higher than the previous record for this time of year: $3.143, first set in 2007 and repeated in 2010.

Analysts say that world demand for refined fuels is keeping U.S. gasoline prices high, in part because the U.S. is exporting record amounts of fuel. In addition, U.S. refineries also are processing more diesel, at the expense of gasoline production, to meet that global demand.

A Nigerian community from the oil-rich Niger Delta has filed a lawsuit in the United States seeking $1 billion in compensation from Anglo-Dutch oil major Shell for decades of pollution caused by oil spills.

Last week the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to decide if companies can be held liable in the United States for international human rights law violations.

The decision was related to a case involving allegations that Shell helped Nigeria violently suppress oil exploration protests in the 1990s.

The $1 billion compensation case was filed at a court in Detroit last week, citing the U.S. Alien Tort Statue law, which dates back from 1789. It has been used in the past to charge companies in the United States for breaches of international law.

The suit was brought on behalf of the people of Ogale in the Eleme local government area, where a United Nations environmental report earlier this year found people drinking water contaminated with carcinogens at 900 times the World Health Organization’s safety limit.

The Energy Department is “routinely threatened with sophisticated cyber attacks” and has not taken the necessary steps to protect itself, according to a report made public Monday.

The report, conducted by Energy Department Inspector General Gregory Friedman, says DOE is working to prevent such attacks. But it identifies a number of vulnerabilities at the department, including unsafe usernames and passwords on computer systems and networks running programs without the required security patches.

“[A]dditional action is needed to further strengthen the Department’s unclassified cyber security program and help address threats to its information and systems,” the report says.

Administration officials view cyber attacks as a growing threat to national security. Cyber attacks on federal agencies have increased by 40 percent since last year, according to the report.

Friedman identifies a 60 percent increase in cybersecurity weaknesses at the Energy Department when compared to fiscal year 2010. Many of the weaknesses identified by the IG last year — 11 of 35 — have not yet been fixed, the report says.

“Although the Department made progress addressing previously identified conditions, we continued to find weaknesses similar in type and risk level to those identified during our FY 2010 review,” the report says.

It’s not just that Obama is a bad judge of character, he’s even a bad strategist. It reminds me of Hillary hiring PR firm president Mark Penn to run her campaign, a man who is about the most stilted, phony, and greed crazed person imaginable. Clinton lost the nomination because she couldn’t overcome the stilted talking points that Penn kept feeding her. The President is in Los Angeles today for the second time in recent months, attending fundraisers among the local wealthy.

He seems to be convinced that the reason he won the election last time is the amount of money he raised. So many industry shills have wormed their way into his Administration that Obama believes that this is just the way government business is conducted.

Clinton was the same way. The elite who run this country have figured out that it’s better to recruit future leaders from poor families, but make sure that they know the program, and are still dazzled by huge mansions and fancy china. The plutocrats learned this the hard way, and still smart over the class betrayals of Roosevelt and Kennedy.

A former lobbyist who pushed the Keystone Pipeline describes a person with no character and no soul. The fact that Broderick Johnson is now a close advisor to the President is one more event in the growing sadness we feel about the man we hoped would lead us, who is turning out to be not a great man, but a puny one.

Wow, this is just brilliant. When the common people have risen up in arms to protest against manipulation of public discourse by professional bullshitters, Obama somehow concludes that what he should do is … to hire even more professional bullshitters!

It does seem that Obama simply doesn’t want to listen to the common man; rather, he somehow thinks it’s the duty of the common man to listen to him. Is there no presidential candidate in the US who truly represents the people at all?

Rina intensified into a hurricane just 21 hours after the first advisory was issued for it as a tropical depression. This is the second fastest such intensification since record keeping began in 1851. Hurricane Humberto of 2007 holds the Atlantic record for fastest intensification from first advisory issued to hurricane strength–18 hours. (Actually, Humberto did the feat in 14 1/4 hours, but this was rounded off to 18 hours in the final data base, which stores points every six hours).http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=1970

Dublin City Council activated a major emergency plan, while south Dublin City Council said that rainfall last night caused “severe flooding.” Dublin-based insurer FBD Holdings Plc dropped as much 3.1 percent to 6.2 euros in Dublin trading, and traded at 6.25 euros as of 9:48 a.m.

BANGKOK: Fast-rising waters have inundated a widening swathe of the Thai capital as residents, refusing to leave already flooded areas, complain of shortages of food and bottled water.
Boats and makeshift floats are being used to take essential items through filthy waist-deep water to thousands of residents in the city’s northern suburbs who have chosen to remain at home rather than go to the overcrowded evacuation centres.
”The government is providing some essentials but it is not enough,” a middle-aged man told the Herald as he waded through water with his family.
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Pocky Sae-lim, 35, whose house is flooded, said elderly people and babies were among victims stranded in flooded areas.

The latest baseball storm in Okla –
CROMWELL, Okla. — Richard Butler’s Cromwell farm was destroyed by Saturday night’s hail. “It was about baseball size. It came down hard. It was putting holes in some of our buildings. It was shattering windshields, denting our cars,” Butler said………
“This morning, I had one dead gull in my yard,” Butler said.

And walking his land, he discovered dozens more dead seagulls.

Butler called Rondi Large with WildCare, an animal hospital and health care facility.

Large walked the property collecting the dead birds that she identified as Franklin gulls.

She said they must have been migrating south when they got caught up in the massive hail storm.

Deadly flooding in Central America: how people contributed to the tragedy
Hurricane Rina has formed off of the Caribbean coast of Central America as the region digs out from floods that killed more than 100 people. Guest blogger Tim Muth looks at the role that humans play in such tragedies.

The floods of this month in El Salvador were extraordinary. But when we look at the consequences of the floods, it is clear that calling this a “natural” disaster excuses too easily the role of humankind in contributing to the tragedy. There are several places where the actions or inactions of human beings had a role:

A committee of MPs has criticised the UK Treasury’s decision to increase a levy on the oil and gas industry calling it an “opportunistic raid”.

The Energy and Climate Change Select Committee report said the way in which the £2bn hike was announced may have undermined investor confidence.

The MPs suggested the UK government should now attempt to do more to restore industry confidence.

The SNP’s Mike Weir said the committee was right to criticise the move.

The report said: “If the government is serious about maximising production from the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS), it needs to consider the long-term impact of changes to the tax regime on investment.

“The evidence on the impact of 2006 increase in the supplementary tax charge on oil and gas production in the North Sea is inconclusive, but there is a clear need to sustain investor confidence by avoiding surprises, such as the further increase announced in the 2011 Budget.

“It is not sensible to make opportunistic raids on UKCS producers.

Energy Minister Charles Hendry said: “Energy security is right at the heart of the coalition’s energy policy.

Climate change has altered the lives of Native Alaskans in the state’s interior in dramatic, sometimes dangerous ways.

Although the effects of change are well documented along the coast, where higher tides and ferocious storms have threatened native communities, a study by the U.S. Geological Survey has found indigenous people in Alaska’s interior also have felt the transformation to a warmer climate during the past several decades of their lifetimes.http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-10-climate-alaska-natives.html

The wind blows when it wants – for the energy revolution that’s a problem. A solution to offer hybrid power plants: convert to green energy in hydrogen, and can be stored. In Berlin, such a plant is in operation, energy managers predict a great future of technology.

To Bill McKibben and protesters All.
A few nights ago a Seattle Occupy camp was surrounded by cars with lights and spots to keep protesters from sleeping. I suggested in a brain storming session with others on my email circuit that mirrors need to be deployed if an OSHA approved mirror could be found. Aluminum foil was one thought which prompted Salish Reo, another commentator on CP to suggest the inside of potato chip bags taped to protest signs and propped against the tents or even surround the camp. during the day those signs could serve as reflectors to shine the sun into windows of the one percent during sunny days. Perhaps the Presidents dwellings on Nov 6. “Here Comes the Sun” performed buy the remaining Beatles? They might even be an effective “shield” against attacking police as the sight of themselves attacking themselves might cause pause in at least some.

As Joe says a boneheaded move, although I think its worse than that, I think the administration just doesn’t care – they hired the Transcanada pipeline consulting firm to write the environmental statement for the XL expansion and on and on.

This administration is one of the most obviously corrupt that I’ve seen for a Democratic administration as in pay to play. Calls to mind the comments on the Grant administration and how corrupt it was with business interests.

Michele Norris, the co-host of the flagship NPR news program “All Things Considered,” will leave that position for a year, she said Monday, because her husband, Broderick Johnson, is joining President Obama’s re-election campaign.

It’s nice to know that the co host of a nightly news program that I’ve been listening to for many years is married to a lobbyist for big oil. NOT!

FWIW, I submitted comments on this at both whitehouse.gov and barackobama.com. If enough of us do this, they might reverse their decision. But of course, what’s done is done and firing Johnson won’t change the mindset that hired him in the first place.

MADRID — Before the global economic crisis hit in 2008, concerns about climate change and the security of energy supplies drove a big investment of financial and political capital in the development of alternative energy resources.

The threat of global warming, combined with record high oil prices, convinced policy makers in the industrial world that dependence on fossil fuels was economically and geopolitically unsustainable.

Europe, the United States and China earmarked billions of dollars for low-carbon technologies like clean coal, wind and even nuclear power.

But the credit crunch and recession reined in the gallop toward a low-carbon future. Now, as countries reassess the likely depth and duration of the economic chill, many are rethinking their energy policies.

In cases like Spain, they are backtracking from the past decade’s robust support for low-carbon technologies that require huge front-loaded investments and public aid programs to encourage production and to compete with cheaper but dirtier fossil fuels.

Growth in renewables and nuclear power will surely continue, especially in China, but the double-digit growth rate in renewable capacity is likely to slow sharply in Europe and the United States. Carbon capture and sequestration, or C.C.S., technology that until recently was considered a silver bullet to reduce global warming has, meanwhile, fallen off the radar screen altogether.http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/oct/25/uk-renewables-2030-wwf?newsfeed=true

In our previous post, The Day After McLean, we examined the 2011 global surface temperature prediction made by data analyst and climate “skeptic” John McLean. McLean’s prediction was rather extreme, calling for the 2011 temperature anomaly to return to (or below) 1956 levels:

“it is likely that 2011 will be the coolest year since 1956 or even earlier”

To be blunt, this was an unwise and uninformed prediction. For example, Figure 1 shows the monthly global surface temperature anomalies (from NOAA NCDC, whose accuracy the BEST project has confirmed) for the past decade (2001-2011) and for 1956.http://www.skepticalscience.com/9-months-after-mclean.html

A few minutes after reading here about Obama’s hiring this lobbyist, I was reading a fund-raising email from his campaign. You are supposed to click to donate — not to reply. I replied, with STOP THE KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE. I intend to do the same with every Obama/Democratic email I get. If we all did this, maybe they’d notice. They know we are all likely to have supported Obama — that’s why we’re getting the email. So I urge others to do the same: hit reply, and say STOP THE KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE.

Meanwhile on the Canadian side of the border, EthicalOil.org (a.k.a. The Ethical Oil Institute) runs amok promoting the “ethical oil” meme first put forth in in Ezra Levant’s book of the same name. Sadly, that framing has been adopted by both government and industry in Canada. Here’s my latest coverage.
===========================The Ethical Oil Institute on oil sands emissions

Today I’ll take a detailed look at the Ethical Oil position on the oil sands carbon footprint, as seen in former spokesperson Alykhan Velshi’s error-filled and confused post entitled Mythbusting: Are the Oilsands Major greenhouse Gas Emitters?, part of his “Myths and Lies” series.

I’ll focus on the two most significant problems in Velshi’s piece:

* Velshi’s original premise was that not only are oil sands greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions relatively insignificant, but that they are actually declining. This has been partially corrected, presumably in response to my initial commentary on this issue, but in such a way as to render his argument completely illogical. And Velshi’s conclusion still repeats the utterly mistaken assertion that oil emissions “are falling”, whereas in fact they are rising at a rapid rate.

* Ethical Oil’s credibility is further damaged by misleading statements concerning the supposedly tiny contribution of oil sands emissions when compared to total global human and natural emissions. This echoes barely veiled climate “skeptic” arguments in Ezra Levant’s 2009 book that started the whole “ethical oil” rebranding effort. And an examination of Levant’s previous statements on climate science would appear to confirm that a strong anti-science stance is not far from the surface, despite the efforts of Ethical Oil spokespersons to hide it.

look to the occupiers; look to the green party; look anywhere but conventional politics and parties. how long will americans try the same thing over and over, and expect to see anything different?

join the 9/6 dc tar sands protesters; rent a young unemployed person if you can’t go; become an anarchist; stop paying your fed taxes; tear off your clothes and run thru a football field at halftime with a no-tar-sands-pipeline banner flying behind you; anything but bitching about the status quo while waiting for someone else to do something about it!

we’ve had choices that represented us, ralph nader for one, but voters are afraid to vote other than repub or dem, and do not seem to realize how very similar the result of that vote has been. when nothing changes, why don’t we? half of us have given up voting, perhaps because they’ve seen it makes so little difference.

Irrespective of the price of the solar PV cells, there is still the asssembly into panels followed by distribution (shipping) and then installation. Not to mention the inverter and possibly other power electronics. So these news stories proclaiming ‘low cost’ solar PV actually don’t provide the figure I need: installed capital cost.

At a University of Colorado rally today, President Barack Obama acknowledged protesters who asked him to stop the construction of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. “We’re looking at it right now,” Obama told the crowd. “No decision has been made. And I know your deep concern about it, so we will address it.”

Duh. It seems Obama still thinks that the laws of physics are just another interest group.